History lives on in restored synagogue in Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH

Standing and looking at the aged white ark topped by golden lions, the past came flooding back.

"I was bar mitzvahed here in 1936," said Aaron Brewer, 85, as the freshly painted wooden doors of Chevra T'helim opened behind him.

"It's still the same, just beautified."

More than 100 people squeezed into Chevra T'helim's heavy wooden pews Sunday to celebrate the restoration effort. The former synagogue, which once had about 200 members, officially opens today as a museum and cultural and community centery.

The white paint on the ark was still cracked Sunday and the American flag at the front of the room still had 48 stars, but guests were pleased to see the past mingle with the present.

The synagogue, built in 1920, was abandoned in 1985. In 2002, The Friends of Chevra T'helim began raising money to save the building, which had fallen into disrepair and was nearing demolition.

Sunday marked a halfway point for the group. The second phase of the effort will be to restore some of the major interior pieces, such as the ark and bimah, and to acquire land to build an addition that will house an exhibit gallery, office space, archives and research facilities and hold historical records and artifacts. The group needs to raise $1 million.

Portsmouth Mayor James Holley, who once had an office next door to the synagogue, said Sunday that he was determined to see the building survive.

It is a reminder that "you can have a hope, you can have a dream, you can have aspirations, but unless you have a pocketbook none of those things are going to become a reality," he said. Chevra T'helim's restoration will ensure that future generations get fulfillment from it, he said.

The museum was restored to its original state and is the same kind of synagogue that used to be built in Eastern Europe, organizers said. They said they hope it will become a destination for tours and visitors and a place to host cultural events.

One of the featured items already on display is one of 1,500 Torah scrolls that survived the Holocaust. This Torah is especially rare because researchers know where it came from, said Helen Brewer Glassman. She and her husband, David, donated it. The Torah was written in 1744 in Trebeic, Czechoslovakia.

"It's quite a precious thing," she said.

"A Torah tells the story of the Jewish people, and this museum is going to tell the story of the Jewish community and the Jewish people in Hampton Roads," she said.

Amy Couteé, (757) 222-5216, amy.coutee@pilotonline.com